Quantum Conundrum Review
On Thursday a smaller title called Quantum Conundrum was released and while it may have slipped past many people's radar it should be noted that Quantum Conundrum is the work of Kim Swift, the genius behind Valve's smash hit Portal. Quantum Conundrum is another puzzle game, with another unique twist. It's available on PC, X-box Live Arcade and PSN. But will Kim Swift's new Square Enix game be as successful as her Portal franchise. Let's jump in and find out. If you've played Portal, you'll probably find Quantum Conundrum to be very familiar. There's a disembodied voice telling you what to do, there's buttons that need to be be weighted down to activate things, and there's a very peculiar invention that helps the player accomplish their various goals. Now if you haven't played Portal 1 and 2, you should probably go do that now. Seriously it's more important than anything else you could be doing. Anyway, back to Quantum Conundrum, I like the game's art style. It's a little bit Cartoony and wacky, but it fits with the story. In Quantum Conundrum you play the nephew of a mad-scientist type inventor. You've been dropped off at your uncle's mansion for the weekend but unfortunately all the power is out and your uncle can only communicate with you via some sort of PA system. The voice actor playing the uncle does a phenomenal job, which is important because his is the only voice you'll be hearing throughout the entire game. Navigating the mansion is a difficult task and players will need to use their IDS device to help them solve various puzzles. The IDS device is a glove that can shift the player into four different dimensions. There's a fluffy dimension where everything is light and easy to pick up, a heavy dimension, a slow-time dimension and a reverse gravity dimension. You gain access to the different dimensions one at a time and in order to have access to a dimension, you must have a battery to power that dimension. So the glove is pretty awesome and switching back and forth between different dimensions so that you can ride a safe through the air is incredibly fun. Also, running through the slow time dimension to try and beat a laser beam can be immensely enjoyable. The puzzles start off easy and ramp up in difficulty, but they never become mind bogglingly hard. I also enjoyed the collectables in the game which are called awkward noise generators. They emit an annoying noise to let the players know that one is present and then you can go about collecting them. The humor in the game is quirky and fun and every time you die you get one of these "things you will never experience." Which is kind of depressing and funny at the same time. The controls are pretty good but jumping was a bit difficult as I wasn't sure where my character's feet were. This was kind of important as one misstep often meant falling into a bottomless pit. I'd really like to know why the mansion was designed with so many bottomless pits, that has to bring down the resale value. The game's plot is pretty good but it's pretty straightforward and not nearly as interesting as Portal. Also the mad scientist uncle isn't as entertaining as Glados, but what are you gonna do. I think one of the game's strongest points is it's price at only $15 the game provides entertainment far greater than it's price tag. It's true the game is kind of short, but I'd rather play a short enjoyable game then a long boring one. Overall Quantum Conundrum is a very entertaining game. The atmosphere is wacky, the puzzles are rewarding and the price is perfect. It's clearly not as good as Portal, but few games are. If you're looking to maximize your money to fun ratio then this game is a great pick up. I give Quantum Conundrum a 9 out of 10. Make sure to hit that subscribe button and keep it locked right here on ClevverGames.